Historian Catherine Corless is to receive a special award for investigative research after her painstaking work revealed the horrors of the children's mass grave at the Tuam Mother and Baby Home.

Ms Corless will be honoured at the NewsBrands Ireland Journalism Awards, in Dublin's Mansion House, on Thursday. Her research prompted the launch of a statutory commission of investigation.

"My initial research into the Tuam Mother and Baby Home was to be just a simple synopsis of the history of the home itself for the 2012 local Tuam Historical Annual," she said.

"But the more I delved into the archives and listened to survivors' accounts of their lives there, I realised this story deserved much more intensive research."

NewsBrands Ireland chairman Vincent Crowley said: "Without her work, the press would not have been able to tell the story and it would have remained hidden with the hundreds of innocent souls, away from public sight."